Described below is a fluidized bed reactor, having a reactor housing, in which discharge of heat out of the reactor housing is provided.
Fluidized bed reactors serve, in particular, for the large-scale implementation or execution of chemical reactions. When chemical reactions take place in them with a high heat tone (catalytic or noncatalytic), undesirable temperature rises may occur or, in a similar way, in the case of endothermal reactions, corresponding temperature drops may occur. For this reason, in the industrial implementation of such chemical transformations in a fluidized bed reactor, it is necessary to have good temperature control and corresponding temperature regulation so that the resulting reaction temperature can be set. On the one hand, heat has to be extracted from the fluidized bed (or delivered to it in the case of endothermal reactions) and, on the other, the transmitted heat quantity must be regulatable for process reasons.
Exothermal reactions mostly occur, that is to say it is necessary for heat to be transported out of the fluidized bed reactor or out of the reactor housing. One possibility for temperature regulation is to deliver cold starting material gas to the reactor, with the result that the release of heat can be compensated. The temperature of the starting material gas can influence the reaction temperature in the reactor. Mostly, however, as a last resort, a heat discharge is installed into the reactor housing, for which purpose heat exchangers in the form of tubes or plates are used. A heat transfer medium absorbs the heat of reaction. In such heat exchangers, a change of phase may also take place, for example in that the heat transfer medium used is water which evaporates directly in them. The temperature of the reaction zone is then regulated via the throughflow and the temperature rise of the heat transfer medium. However, this type of temperature regulation is not sufficiently accurate.